Who should be paid more: a soldier or a teacher?

[Zioneer]

Why not pay both more? I would have no problem with that.

[dead0man]

I'm not sure which is paid more, but one complains a lot more about not being paid enough than the other one does.

If you have never heard anyone kvetching about getting by on an E4's salary, then you have never had a conversation within thirty miles of an Army reservation.

Actually, I have on multiple occasions, including being on a military base for my father's promotion to Major and the command thereof.

Well, a major wouldn't have reason to complain about pay, no.

His original comment makes more sense now. A typical officer's kid may as well live thirty miles away from post for all of the time he's likely to spend around enlisted soldiers and their families, especially those with the lowest pay.

wait, you think officer's kids go to a different school or something?  Perhaps elementary schools on the bigger bases, but they would certainly go to middle and high school with the kids of many enlisted men and women, though they might get lost in the shuffle with all the "towny" kids.  Most of the lowest ranks with kids just have very small children.  You will rarely see an E-4 with an 9 year old, but even those babies hang out together in the base day care (if you can get a slot) with the babies of O-4s.


back to the OP, When I was an E-3, my also working wife and baby were on WIC ifyoucanbelieveit.  I'm sure many young teachers are too.  Seems to me anybody who could die for the country* or who is teaching our children should be paid enough to not need a Federal assistance program to feed a child.  So both I guess...especially the lower ranks.



*to be fair, service to the country isn't the number one reason most people join.  It's in there, sure, has to be or GTFO, but it's rarely number one.

[Kingpoleon]

Why not pay both more? I would have no problem with that.

More as in who should be paid a higher amount than the other.

That's exactly what I meant, dead0man. The age difference is most important, especially when we're discussing soldiers with extremely low pay, but there is also plenty of social segregation, especially beginning in middle school. You don't need to go to separate schools for that.

I was born rather late to my dad - when he was 33. Your populist attacks on myself as "out of touch with enlisted soldiers" come across as aggressive and somewhat insincere and unauthentic.

[angus]

I was born rather late to my dad - when he was 33.

"born ... for"

You were "born to" your mother, "born for" your father.  (You can also apparently say "born of" when referring to your mother, as in "born of the Virgin...")

And not late.  My father was 30 when I was born, and I was 37 when my son was born, the average of 30 and 37 is 33.5, so 33 is pretty close to the average from my familial perspective.  I also have many colleagues who had their first child in their mid-30s.  It's called family planning.  Now that we know what causes pregnancy, we can exercise some control over it.  

[Antonio the Sixth]

I have no idea and I guess it depends on a lot of things, but I think most people should have roughly the same standard of living regardless of their job (or lack thereof) so that's not a very interesting issue to me.

WTH

#triggered

maybe you should have said basic and not same

Well, it's "basic" in the sense that the only deviations allowed should be upwards and not downwards, but not "basic" in the sense neoliberals usually mean it.